3D import - Tools & Example source of 3D data

[tassel]

Hi,

A technical question. Today I work with 3D (mostly 3DS Max) and I remember it was an example of importing lightwave objects back in the days. Is there someone who has made ​ example source of importing 3ds data or a routine that reads plain text files with coordinates?

I'm thinking of making a maxscript to write text files with coordinate data so i can use it for intros/demos etc.

What tools are available on the amiga/pc to do such things today?

[hooverphonique]

try posting this sort of question on pouet.net.. much better chances of getting answers to demo- and 3d-related questions there..

[Bastich]

Max can output ASE files which are text readable. Other than that 3DS files are fairly simple to decode and can be in/exported.
Don't try looking into MAX files they are about as use able as Lightwave LWS files. Old format LWO files are also simple, just not the modern v5 onwards versions.

[Thorham]

What about FBX ascii files? Max can export those.

Have you had a look at http://assimp.sourceforge.net/? I've used it lot's and it's been really usefull

[Bastich]

Clarky - Nice link It even supports bones I may have to give this one a go again as it would be simpler than a MAX plugin or the FBX SDK for getting skinned mesh animations.

[tassel]

If we only want the coordinates from the object, we can use a maxscript (found in the maxscript documentation):

The snippet:

tmesh = snapshotAsMesh selection[1]
out_file = createfile ((GetDir #export)+"/testmesh.dat")
format "%,%\n" tmesh.numverts tmesh.numfaces to:out_file
for v = 1 to tmesh.numverts do
format "%," (getVert tmesh v)to:out_file
format "\n" to:out_file
for f = 1 to tmesh.numfaces do
format "%," (getFace tmesh f) to:out_file
close out_file

That is a starting point...

If we have a 3D Box in 3DS Max this is what i get:

8,12
[-2.5,-2.5,-2.5],[2.5,-2.5,-2.5],[-2.5,2.5,-2.5],[2.5,2.5,-2.5],[-2.5,-2.5,2.5],[2.5,-2.5,2.5],[-2.5,2.5,2.5],[2.5,2.5,2.5],
[1,3,4],[4,2,1],[5,6,8],[8,7,5],[1,2,6],[6,5,1],[2,4,8],[8,6,2],[4,3,7],[7,8,4],[3,1,5],[5,7,3],

Now i have to make a routine that read this data and displays/rotate the 3D data.
(This is going to be a challenge for me, because it's a long time since i have done anything in amiga asm, so i will probably need some time (1 year ) to get into this as I never moved to this area last time I tried programming asm.)

[Bastich]

Good luck

[Photon]

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

try posting this sort of question on pouet.net.. much better chances of getting answers to demo- and 3d-related questions there..

You sure about that?

Just export lightwave. You'll get poly and uv coords, and ccw polys. Calc normals and optionally scale to big ints. Adapt to your working vector routine.

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by Photon

You sure about that?

well, it could also end up in a flame war/trolling/mocking or any other sort of situation

[Photon]

Well, there's that, but I guess I meant that EAB is also a source for coding tips.

Anyway the lightwave text format is well-made and pretty simple, bunch of vertices

v [x] [y] [z]
v [x] [y] [z]
...

Followed by a bunch of faces

f [vertex1] [vertex2] [vertex3]...
f [vertex1] [vertex2] [vertex3]...
...

Remember to clean up your model and I prefer Maya's export.

[emufan]

i've found a lightwave object converter by The Black Lotus. it's a ms-dos tool, source code included.
maybe someone can make an amiga executable or make it work on win7 / 8.1 ?

zoned: TBL-LWC.lha

e4dit: you need the dos-extender dos4gw.exe or dos32a
- use these instruction to replace dos4gw with dos32a.

in dosbox-0.74.conf set: memsize=64 and it does work ( dos32a tested ).

edit2: it's already on aminet, also a ppc version with source and smakefile

[tassel]

Hi,

Thanks for the input guys

I'll do some more research around this and come back when I get time (going a little slow now that it's summer)